


Occupational Hazards

by TaiGambol



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 02:11:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8949703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaiGambol/pseuds/TaiGambol
Summary: Being part of the ZPD, especially Precinct One's finest, isn't all patrols and crimefighting.Sometimes you have to make hard choices.Play it safe, and let people die?Or be a hero and risk dying with them?Whatever choice you make, someone has to live with it.Sometimes, if you're lucky, it's you.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually wrote this a little while back - over a month ago, in fact, wow.
> 
> Since I got the guts to start posting my work, I figured this would tide people over, while I work on the sequel to Culture Clash.
> 
> (Oh yeah, spoiler alert: I have a sequel to that in mind!)

There’s a lot of primal instincts that mammalkind prides itself on having overcome.

Prey work alongside predators (mostly) without fear. Tools and machines close the gap between differing species, allowing a goat to do the same work as a wolf and vice versa. Even the species barrier in romance was slowly being pushed against, bent, dismantled piece by piece.

But there are some things that seem coded ever deeper into the psyche. The moment of freezing when startled. The territorial tendencies for many to stay amongst their own kind.

The fear of fire.

Judy Hopps was on-site, part of the efficient clockwork of the emergency services, the various moving parts of ZPD, ZFD, and Zootopia Medical setting aside rivalries to do what they do best - saving lives.

A truck had swerved, ploughing into the side of a restaurant. The premises were evacuated, the injured were being treated, and witnesses given preliminary interviews.

She was on the interview team - for all that she had a habit of putting her foot in her mouth, two hundred and seventy five siblings gave her a knack for soothing people out of a panic, a knack sorely missing from officers Delgato and McHorn.

(She wished she’d gotten a picture of Delgato’s face when the dazed beaver had started sobbing like a kit. Nick would’ve priced it like _gold_ for blackmail, which made it worth something to _her_ out of him.)

Nick went into the restaurant with Wolford - between Wolford’s nose and Nick’s, they’d find anyone trapped, and between their respective sizes, be able to get them free.

It rankled, a little, being apart - but this wasn’t standard procedure. Emergencies called for specialization. And for all Judy’s go-get-em attitude, there wasn’t much she could really do in search-and-rescue - not with the noise outside blunting the advantages of her hearing.

Something she _did_ have a feel for was danger. She might not have been the first to pick up on the problem - but as the ZFD started getting worried, it spread, catching to her. She tuned out the distressed porcupine she was getting a statement from, trying to catch what was being said-

-and when the ZFD started running, she was the first of the ZPD to react.

 

“What’s going on?” She demanded of a giraffe, running backwards, only barely able to keep pace with the long-limbed mammal.

“Gas leak. Kitchen was running full-tilt. Get your people clear!” If there’s one thing Officer Judy Hopps understood, it was when she was being given an order.

And for once, she was inclined to follow it.

“Hopps, Three-Zero-Eight-Zero, fire risk at the diner, all units on-site get people clear!”

The echo of her instructions being passed out over the radios sprang everyone into action. The clockwork started ticking overtime. A perimeter established, and all Judy could do was watch the doors.

 

Five seconds. Shapes moving in the chaos of the rammed restaurant.

Ten. Movement to the doors.

Twelve. A hesitation from one, a change of direction.

Fifteen. Wolford shouldered the door open at a jog, moving out into the cordon, promptly intercepted by Judy.

 

“Where’s Nick?”

“He’s just-” The wolf turned, paused. Ears fell, tail drooped. “- he was just behind me, he asked if I’d smelt something, I said no, nothing other than the place’s food, I told him we had to go, we left-”

 

Twenty three seconds, and the shop lit up.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. She could _see_ the tongue of flame, licking along through the air, from the doorway to the kitchen, out to the overturned truck.

To the fuel tanks, punctured in the crash.

The fireball sent everyone staggering back a couple of steps. Her ears went flat against her head as the explosion roared into a resounding silence, eyes squinted shut against the sudden bright flash.

She felt herself speaking, but couldn’t hear the words - felt herself lunge forwards, only to get swept up in strong arms, holding her back from the conflagration. She struggled, twisted, kicked, felt something give way only for more hands, more arms to keep her still.

And throughout, all she could focus on was the front of the diner, enveloped in flames.

 

She wasn’t entirely sure how long she struggled, how long until the deafening silence gave way to a ringing and her own gasping sobs. It was like coming up out of a nightmare - the fight went out of her, going limp suddenly.

She stayed that way, staring in horror, passed from the arms of her captors onto the back of an ambulance, blanking out the EMT’s requests.

The ZFD had the flames under control - the inferno blazed on, but it threatened only the diner itself, contained and slowly being pushed back, shrunk into itself. Dimly, she recognized Wolford debriefing - “No civilians, but Officer Wilde was with me and went missing between the order to pull back and the explosion- no sir, he’s not accounted for yet- yessir, I’ll keep you up to date.”

 _Accounted for_ . Like numbers in a book. Like he hadn’t just up and _burned_ , as if-

Movement drew her gaze, mismatched colours against a background of grey. Black, blue.

Red.

She tried to get up, struggled against the EMT holding her, shouted - “Nick!” - voice raw, choked.

 _That_ caught attention. Before long one of the ZFD, a bear, had scooped the staggering fox up, carried him past the cordon, to the second ambulance. He was clutching his arm to his side - she broke free of her captor’s grip and lunged over to his side.

“Nick! Nick you _terrified_ me! Are you hurt? Your side-” A paw over her muzzle shut her up, shooting a glare at the irritated badger trying to check him over that got nothing but a scowl from her, and a low chuckle from the fox.

“Carrots.” His voice was hoarse. “I’m okay. I’m fine.” He shifted his arm.

Cradled in the crook, against his police shirt, were a trio of rats, wide-eyed and terrified but none the worse for wear.

 

\----------

 

It was a flurry, after that. Rescuees taken aside for their own checks, Nick’s treatment - mild smoke inhalation, a second-degree burn on his forearm, minor inner-ear trauma from the noise of the explosion so close.

Wolford stayed close, looking for all the world as if he’d been kicked - kneeling just to one side, quiet but for a low whine occasionally.

“-They don’t fully gear up until lunch-time. They run on leftovers and easy-cook foods between the morning and lunch rushes - pretty good stuff, can’t complain for the price. When Bill,” Nick gestured. Wolford whined again. “When he confirmed the food smell, I tried to think if we’d seen the cooks evacuated. Didn’t remember, so I decided to check. A pot must’ve fallen on them in the panic, kept them trapped. Would’ve cooked, if I hadn’t found them.” The badger patted his elbow, clearing him - and it was scant moments after she pulled away that Judy tackled him, head buried against his chest. “Oof! Easy, fluff, I’m damaged goods now, see?”

For all the wry needling, his good arm slid around her, pulling her into the hug.

“Don’t you _ever_ do that to me again.”

“So you _don’t_ want me to heroically rescue the trapped civilians, gotcha- _ow_!” He rubbed his arm where she’d thumped him.

“Don’t go getting yourself killed! I thought I’d lost you…”

Unseen to her, Nick Wilde smiled, small, genuine, patting the back of her head comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, Carrots. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”


End file.
